


Eternity

by vampiricrose



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Childhood Memories, Falling In Love, Light Angst, M/M, Soulmates, You feel the same pain as your soulmate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:41:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24375955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vampiricrose/pseuds/vampiricrose
Summary: His parents have warned him before - sometimes, you’ll feel pain. It’s not you, it’s your soulmate. If they’re hurt, you feel it, too, easing their pain ever so slightly.Mao finds it weird. If they’re your soulmate, why do they hurt you? Wouldn’t they try to not hurt themselves if they knew it’d hurt someone else? He doesn’t know.
Relationships: Isara Mao/Sakuma Ritsu
Comments: 3
Kudos: 81





	Eternity

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this in 2 hours this morning  
> i didnt betaread it  
> im just tired. have this

_ Mao’s 5 when he first feels it. _   
  


He’s sitting in his bedroom, colouring in a drawing with dull crayons. There’s faint birdsong outside, just waking up in the morning and filling the otherwise silent spring mornings with sweet melodies.    
His parents have warned him before - sometimes, you’ll feel pain. It’s not you, it’s your soulmate. If they’re hurt, you feel it, too, easing their pain ever so slightly.   
Mao finds it weird. If they’re your soulmate, why do they hurt you? Wouldn’t they try to not hurt themselves if they knew it’d hurt someone else? He doesn’t know.   
  
A sudden jolt of pain going through his wrist makes him crush the crayon within his hands, staining his otherwise clean skin a bright red. He bites down a yelp, and stares at his hand in a mix of worry and irritation. He can’t finish his colouring, now.    
  
Mao doesn’t think he likes his soulmate. They hurt him a lot.   
(But, he finds himself worrying everytime he feels a sharp pain behind his eyes, on his arms, on his chest. He finds himself avoiding anything that can possibly hurt him, lest he hurts his soulmate further.)  
  
  
_ Mao’s 6 when he first meets Ritsu. _   
  


A dull, yet constant headache has been plaguing his concentration in the day. The heat is drowning, and he finds himself on a swingset in a playground, swinging high to get some simulation of a breeze.   
There’s a boy beneath a tree, curled up in the shade, clutching his head. Mao doesn’t pay him any mind, it’s their own fault for going outside, if they react like this.   
  
A sudden dip of his consciousness, he falls off the swing, landing awkwardly on his knees. He hisses, looking at the damage, open cuts and the beginning of blood dripping down his palm. His head spikes up at the same boy beneath the tree squealing, rubbing his hands furiously against his thighs. Mao blinks once, twice. Is that who he thinks it is?   
  
Mao’s mother always described his soulmate as a lovely, beautiful woman. An elegant lady, albeit clumsy considered how much pain Mao had to endure for them. So, seeing a skinny and delicate boy react to Mao’s own injuries like they were his own gave him a shock.   
  
Even though he convinced himself he didn’t like his soulmate, something in his chest twists at leaving them behind. He could just go home, ignore this situation and ignore his mother’s pleas to reconsider his feelings of distaste towards his soulmate.    
  
But, he finds himself stumbling over to him, ignoring the burning of his wounds pulling at each movement.   
  
“Are you okay?” He asks, forcing his voice out. The boy looks up to look at him, large, red eyes staring at him. They’re pretty, Mao can see his reflection in them. He tilts his head, black fringe covering said eyes, and nodding. Mao smiles, reaching his hand out to help him up, his soulmate's shaky hand taking it, and Mao notes how pale he is.   
“My name is Mao! Mao Isara.”   
“... Sakuma Ritsu.”   
  
(Ritsu is pretty, Mao thinks. He always seems so far away, so zoned out. Mao briefly wonders why Ritsu experiences so much pain in his day-to-day life. They promise to meet the next day, and they do, and they promise again, and again.)   
  
  
_ Mao is 12 when he first feels emotional pain. _   
  
  
He’s sitting at the park he met Ritsu at, waiting for him to arrive. It’s autumn, the leaves falling down from trees and causing crunches noising whenever he stomps on them. On the same swings as the day he met Ritsu, he keeps swinging, looking over at the Sakuma residence.   
  
Mao doesn’t know much about Ritsu’s personal life. He knows Ritsu has a brother, and that he plays piano. He has a nice singing voice, too, as he occasionally sings alongside the birds chirping out their greetings for the sun's arrival.    
  
A sudden pain in his chest takes his pain away, and it’s not what he’s felt before. It’s not like when he’s seen Ritsu collapse and hit his arm awkwardly, it’s not like the dull headaches Ritsu begins to get when he’s out in the sun for too long. It’s like his heart is being enclosed by his ribcage, and his breathing speeds up.   
  
Footsteps get louder towards him, and he feels Ritsu hold onto his coat from the front, sobbing into his shoulder. He’s disoriented, feeling the pain in his chest grow further at the sight. Mao twists his head upwards to look back at Ritsu’s house, and he sees older women and men yell in the direction Ritsu ran, others trying to bring them back inside.   
There’s a boy not as old as the others, hair longer than Ritsu, who finally convinces them to leave him alone. Mao wonders who he is.   
  
Ritsu’s breathing eventually calms down, the pain in his chest getting gentler. Mao’s hands had trailed naturally up to the back of Ritsu’s head, ruffling his hair and sitting in comfortable silence. He pulls away, hiccuping out an apology, red eyes getting redder and puffy, hair tousled from the position he had craned his neck on Mao’s shoulder.   
  
Mao asks what happened, and Ritsu’s lips thin out in discomfort. He doesn’t answer, opting to move to the swing next to the one Mao’s sitting on, grabbing his hand and holding it in the gap between them.   
  
(The older Mao gets, the more the loose ends tie together, and it makes him wonder if the pain Ritsu endured for years was genuinely just clumsy mistakes.)   
  
_  
_ _ Mao’s 14 when he and Ritsu begin dating. _   
  
  
Mutual feelings and childhood memories bloom a relationship, one so natural and a constant in their lives in a period of uncertainty as Ritsu moves to highschool. He tells him he’s going to an idol school - Yumenosaki, and Mao’s heard of it. Many idols from there are extremely successful.   
  
“How come you wanted to be an idol?” Mao asks, suddenly in the room with nothing but Mao, Ritsu, and his piano. Ritsu stops playing for a second, and he turns to look at Mao.   
  
“Maakun said my singing voice was nice.”   
  
(Mao wants to be an idol, too.)   
  
  
_ Mao’s 15 when he feels the worst pain in his life. _   
  
  
He’s shot awake in the middle of the night, clutching at his chest and breathing hard and loud. This feeling - it’s a new one. He knows it’s emotional pain, he’s felt his fair deal of it due to Ritsu’s home life, but it’s not sadness. It’s another feeling, thorns digging into his lungs and causing his throat to close in on itself.   
  
Uncertainty and worry fills him as his shaking fingers find his phone, texting Ritsu endlessly to see what’s going on, and he gets the curt response of, “hes gone.”   
  
Mao doesn’t think twice. He doesn’t want to, shuffling on shoes and running over to his house. It’s the dead of night, maybe 2 in the morning, and Ritsu’s door is unlocked. Mao wants to scold him for doing something so unsafe, but the burning in his chest getting tighter further ruins the chances of him wanting to do said thing.   
  
He crawls into Ritsu’s bed. He’s hiccuping, no time to breath, eyes sore from empty tear ducts. Mao holds him close, pulling Ritsu’s head to his chest and letting him cry all he needs. Ritsu croaks out apology after apology, apologising for making Mao deal with all the pain that should be his and his only to endure, apologising for dragging Mao out to his house in the middle of the night, apologising for being so annoying.   
  
Those thoughts are drowned out by Mao’s affectionate whispers, telling him he has nothing to apologise for. It’s not his fault. Kisses to his temple and forehead, assuring him he’ll never leave soothes the pain in his chest ever so slightly, letting him know he’s doing something right. Ritsu falls asleep in his arms, listening to his heartbeat.   
  
Mao lets his own tears fall after that. He absentmindedly wonders if Ritsu can feel this, even through dreams.    
  
(Mao knows he’s gotten nightmares from Ritsu’s own pain before. He doesn’t want Ritsu to go through that.)   
  
  
_ Mao is 17 now. _   
  
  
Mao’s arms and wrapped around Ritsu, head on his chest and breathing slowly. It’s early morning, and neither of them need to wake up for a few hours, but Mao can’t fall asleep. Why should he sleep, if he can look at Ritsu’s pretty features?   
His eyelashes are long; and Mao smiles at that. His eyelashes were normally full of gaps and short, a result of his frequent crying, but them being long gives Mao some comfort.   
  
He moves his lips to his temple, a sloppy, messy kiss, whispering out that he loves him. Warmth bubbles in his chest, a feeling similar to Ritsu’s messy anger and sadness, but it doesn’t hurt. It makes his face warm, and heartbeat quicker.   
  
Ritsu wakes up, humming in brief annoyance at being awoken, but it goes away at the realisation he’s in Mao’s hold. Soft, quiet breaths and exchanging lazy kisses fills the otherwise quiet morning.   
  
“Maakun.”   
“Hmm?”   
“I love you.”   
Mao smiles, the feeling in his chest getting warmer.   
“I love you, too.”   
  
(Mao wants times like these to never end.)

**Author's Note:**

> zzz i hope you enjoooyed


End file.
